I'm seeing the opposite. I literally had the pool to myself this morning.

I always found the pools to be annoyingly crowded in April. Part of the increase in the pools is because we get a lot of triathletes (maybe short course or non-serious types) who don't swim all winter but finally get in the pool in April since our open water season starts end of May or beginning of June. They usually show up in local sprint race swim caps. That scenario was where we used to live which had a denser population around the pools (our club had 3 pools, none very nice lol)

We moved to a new area over a year ago, but now swim in a pool that is in a busy, popular ski town. Day passes for tourists have been suspended due to covid but it's still been a pain all winter booking lanes. We did masters 3x week from Oct 1 to end of March to avoid lane bookings. Now we are booking 3 lanes a week and only doing masters once a week. My husband gets up at midnight to book lanes for us since they fill up very quickly for the early time slots. Since I'm training for an IM and need the sleep, he is doing this really huge favor for me. It totally sucks. I keep saying it's only for 4-5 more weeks and then we will be outside. We have an Endless Pool coming this fall as I can't deal with public pools anymore (it's also too far in the winters). After years of all kinds of frustration, I can't wait to swim at home.

I would think April is just busy in most pools where winter is almost over. People coming out of the wood work when it starts to get nice. It doesn't always make sense. And I often wonder where they are coming from....

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Around here its the opposite but our pool went from 1 per lane to 2 per lane. Seems like there are always 7 or 8 people that wanted to swim which with 6 lanes caused the pool to sell out in less than 2 minutes. Now it rarely does.

I have noticed very recently a few new people swimming with their IM caps on. Guess its time for them to come out and tell us how short course people aren't serious.

Easier here in Southern California.

Our pools have been closed for 14 months. Count your blessings!

Would you mind sharing info on pools in your area that are open? I know you live fairly close to me.
I am having difficulty finding them. Thanks.

Ours have been closed for 8 months out of the last 14. So we had it bettter than you. When we have been open, it has been nearly impossible to get a reservation, but they keep 1 slot for drop in and 10 min in, if someone does not show up you get 50 out of 60 minutes. I literally went for 50 drop ins and only did not get in twice. Most of the time, the pool is 1/4 empty relative to the reservation capacity.

No offense was meant to anyone in my comment. I'm just noting what I see every single April in the pools where I swim. It's like clock work. They come out to the pool around the first week of April. I'm in awe of the serious, dedicated short course triathletes (ETA: who do swim all winter and make the awful trek to the pool in our rough winters). I can't sprint to save my life, so I do long course.

Anyone else find race swim caps made of that thin cheap material very uncomfortable? It's like they pull my hair when I put them on and take the off. I only race in them. I like my soft silicone swim caps.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Mine are getting harder now... My local YMCA pool reopened with 45-minute reservations last summer. It was tough to get a reservation in the popular times (before work hours) initially. Then it got easier around January. Now it got hard again, starting a couple weeks ago. Maybe people are getting out more.

What ultimately torques me is that we have 8 available lane reservations. The pool is almost always 100% booked when I swim. Almost every time I swim, one person is a no-show. And frequently there are two no-shows. That sucks, because there is someone else who wanted to be there.

What's swimming? I wish pools were open.

Been swimming here in the pool for the last 6 months. Live in a red state so no issues with pools (and low COVID numbers)

No problem for me in SoCal. I did offer to split my lane last Friday to someone standing poolside waiting for an open lane. If you are having trouble I would suggest making an attempt to get the facility to allow two per lane with one using each side for their rest in between sets. I thought I saw something where 4 per lane was allowed and acceptable. The swim team kids have been doing that since last May. One per lane sounds outdated and overly cautious in my opinion.

Have you explored the smaller gyms, that have pools? Our local Y’s are packed, and the university is packed, and the local swim club is packed, etc, requiring time slots, reservations, and lane sharing. Ironically there is a franchise gym in our state called VASA. It’s a Midwest chain. They buy old buildings, and convert to fitness centers. 3 1/2 months ago, the boiler broke at my main pool, closing it for more than a month. On a whim, I decided to check out the local VASA gym, simply because there was the word “pool” on the sign, along with all the other stuff (racquet ball, weights, aerobic, classes, cardio, etc). I drive past the place daily, it's a half mile from my house, but for some reason, I never really considered it would have much more than a small hotel style splash around pool. I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful 3 lane, 25 meter pool. I asked the guy what the protocol was, for reserving a lane, or when someone was waiting for a lane. He laughed, and said he had been working there since it opened 2 years ago, and other than water aerobics class 3 time a week, he had never seen 3 people in the pool at the same time. I signed up on the spot, for $22/month. He was right! It’s a swimming paradise. I’ve been swimming there every other morning, for 2 months now, sometimes more than 3 hours at a time, and while all the other pools are packed, 98% of the time, I have the pool to myself, and so far, have never seen more than 3 people in the pool ever.

I snapped this photo at 8:30 am, after doing a 3 hour pool workout. I was the only one there, and that's pretty much every morning. I'm surprised (but not complaining), that more triathlon folks haven't caught on, to these local smaller gyms.

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Athlinks / Strava

Where are you? I am in south torrance, as someone posted above going to 2 per lane opened everything up. I swim at the Torrance plunge because it’s close, 45 minutes. Sometimes Wiseburn in el segundo, 50 minutes. They just opened redondo Union for Sunday’s only (will add Saturday after swim season), 45 minutes, only 3 sessions but 15 lanes (one per as of now)

People also swim at Begg and Hawthorne but I have not gone there

I’m OK in MA. My only complaint is my pool has moved to more 45 minute sessions and fewer 60 min sessions. So to get my hour I go 8 to 9 PM. To reduce no shows, my pool charges a no show/cancelation <24 hours of $6. That seems to work well.

I'm just east of the Trump golf course. But I commute daily to Santa Monica, so I do head your way.
Used to go to Belmont Plaza but that's impossible to get a reservation now.

I'll check out all of your suggestions, thank you.

Where I am at our local Y has been open since last June with no real interruptions.....yet.

Hitting the pool 3X a week pretty consistent now, but crossing my fingers and just hope it stays
as is thru october

monty and i swim in 2 pools: one in palmdale, a far off suburb of los angeles, and a big one in santa clarita, a closer LA suburb. over the last year we have had to adopt a process for lane reservations or we get shut out. before covid, you just showed up and you always had a lane. santa clarita has now gone from 1hr30min sessions, 2x a day, to 1:30 sessions 5x a day, to 1hr sessions 6 or 7 times a day, and they still fill. we know when the reservations open for the week, 2 to 3 weeks in advance, and are there, on the minute, at the computer, making reservations.

i guess there are 2 ways to look at this: that it's a problem; or that (in the larger sense) like the bike boom, a swim boom is an opportunity, if triathlon is a sport we believe is good for all comers.

for monty and me, and for my wife and for his family, pool time is a priority, so we took note of how the reservation systems worked. i've been caught sleeping before, not so much now.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Yeah I tried to get into Belmont when things were bad but no luck

Wiseburn would be best bet altho it does book out early mornings a bit quicker. I believe they still open lanes a week in advance so unfortunately need to remember to check in every day.

those saying easier in SoCal, not so much. I am not having luck, only reservations i get is saturday. 3/4th of pools closed - or taken up by highschool swim teams

Yeah, “so cal” is sort of amorphous and really depends where you are. it was awful here for a while, like trying to get into IMAZ back in the day

I have to say I am surprised to read that some areas are totally shut down. California gets a rap for being too shut down so it’s a disconnect for me

The YMCAs where I swim don't have reservations, but just a 1 or 2 per lane limit (first come, first served) for 60 min max. I have seen an uptick in usage in the past few months, but it hasn't been problematic. I rarely have to wait for a lane and never more than 10-15 min. I credit the uptick in usage in people getting vaccinated and feeling more comfortable coming to the Y.

I am in the East Valley (Burbank). There are 3 pools within a 30 min drive from me that have 45 min slots available for tomorrow. Getting longer reservation is impossible - I know of a bunch of people who are swimming in the San Pedro/Long Beach harbors to get longer swims in.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

At this point swimming is just barely maintenance. I improved a bit from the first few swims after 6 -7 months off, but at this point 2 or 3 x :45 or :50 a week (coach written workouts) isn't doing much of anything other than treading water, pun intended.

I'm 5 minutes from the ocean and have no excuse. But holes in my wetsuit and still temperate waters are my excuses